Celestial Bungle
by Eleyvie
Summary: The Heavens have made a mistake... and now Harry must somehow deal with it and still win the war in the process. Harry/Harem... except neither Harry nor Harem are particularly thrilled about what happened.
1. Chapter 1 - Celestial Bungle

Chapter I. Celestial Bungle.

It was a very bad day to be a Harry Potter. Well, Halloweens have always sucked for him, but this one surely beat all the records. Being selected as the fourth Champion in a Twi-Wizard Tournament, infamous for it's fatality rate, frankly sucked. Being praised or vilified by every single Hogwards student, with the exception of Hermione, was even worse.

Still, Harry somehow managed to get to sleep.

Needless to say, when he almost instantaneously woke up and didn't recognize the place around him, he was not amused in the slightest.

"What the hell?", he grumbled, looking for his wand. Which he didn't find. That's it, he decided, this day officially goes down as The Worst Halloween Ever.

"Please do not worry, Mr. Potter", said a melodical female voice from behind him. "You are in no danger here."

Harry whipped around to discover... he was really at a loss of words to describe whom he did discover. The girl was young, and yet feeled incredibly ancient.

"Who are you?" He asked warily. "And where is this place?"

"I will explain everything in a few minutes, Mr. Potter. But first of all", she sighed and suddenly bowed to him. "On behalf of the Celestial Department of Love I bring you our sincere regret for our mistake. Please feel assured that our Department will do everything in it's power to compensate any losses suffered on your behalf."

"What? What is happening? I don't understand what you are speaking about at all!", Harry exclaimed in shock.

"That's not surprising", the girl stood straight and smiled. "But as I said, I'm going to explain the situation in a few minutes. If you would please follow me?"

Harry was really at a loss. Celestial Departments? Some ancient-looking girls expressing their regrets for their mistakes? What the hell was happening here? Still, the girl promised to explain, so he followed her into what looked like a modern office. The only thing out of place in the office was the window, which glowed and let the light in - but somehow obscured everything behind it. The girl motioned Harry in the direction of visitor's chair, which he immediately occupied, while the girl sat behind the office desk and solemnly looked at Harry.

"All right, Mr. Potter. I really owe you an explanation. This may sound strange to you, but you are currently sleeping in your Hogwarts dormitory. It is only your soul that is present here. And to answer your next question, 'here' is the place that you mortals call the Heavens."

"I'm dead?" asked Harry in shock.

"NO! No, no, no, you are perfectly alive. We just took a liberty and invited you here for a talk regarding your situation. It is best done when the person is asleep or deep in a trance. Frankly, we prefer the trance, it's always easier to persuate the person in question that they are not simply dreaming. Unfortunately you do not practise any meditation techniques that could bring you into a trance-like state, so we have to do with what we have. Do you follow me so far?"

"I think so", answered Harry carefully. "So are you an angel then?"

The girl shrugged. "You could call me that. Or a dozen other names actually. Is it important for you?"

After careful consideration, Harry shook his head. "No, I suppose not."

"Very well. Now that you have calmed down somewhat, let me explain the situation that warranted your summons here." The girl sighed. "As I said, this is Heavens. An organization of higher beings, whose purpose is to make sure the mortal world runs smoothly and efficiently. That's the theory at least. The Heavens are divided into numerous Departments, which are responsible for various aspects of human life. As I said before, I work for the Department of Love, which is where you are currently located."

Harry looked around the office sceptically. It was a pretty plain and orginary-looking office. It definitely did not look like an Office of the Celestial Department of Love. Or any other Celestial Department for that matter. It rather looked like some mid-level executive position office in a commercial company.

"Hey, don't give me that look!", exclaimed the girl indignantly. "I know this place doesn't look like the thing, but we are working here, you know. Not making love with each other! There's nothing surprising that a place that's used to work looks like... well like a workplace."

Harry shrugged. "I just expected something... well, I don't know. This makes sense in a way, I guess."

"Thank you", replied the girl with a touch of venom in her voice. "Now that we have that established... where was I?"

"You were explaining why I was summoned here."

"Ah yes. Well, your case actually concerns three Departments, so I reckon I should explain everything from the start. The story starts with the Department of Death. About forty years ago, they got royally pissed off with some mortal, Thomas something Riddle, who had found some ancient method of achieving immortality. Don't ask me about the method, I wouldn't tell you even if I knew, and I don't know anyway, they keep such things pretty hush-hush. So they tried their usual tricks when dealing with wannabe immortals, except nothing worked, apparently the guy is pretty tough."

Harry nodded. Indeed, Lord Voldemort was "pretty tough", second only to Dumbledore - except Dumbledore was not getting any younger. Meanwhile, the girl continued.

"So then the Death guys finally remembered they are not alone here and requested the Department of Fate. And lo and behold, they get the official response that this guy is a part of one of the Fate's Patterns."

"What is a Fate's Pattern?" asked Harry.

"Oh, indeed, you don't know. Let's see... imagine your fate as a single thread, extending from the past and into the future. Now, it's actually much more complex than a single thread as your fate may develop in hundreds and thousands different directions, so it's not a single thread with a single fate, but rather a bunch of threads for all of your potential fates, and those threads are splitting, merging, interconnecting... you name it, they do it. And that's just your fate, but there are other people involved as well, so taken together, that's actually a really big mess which does not usually make any sense. Unless there's a Pattern. You see, sometimes a bunch of threads from different people gets interwoven together into a single huge knot, and there's only a limited number of potential threads leaving that knot for each person. This is what's called a Fate Pattern, and let me tell you, it's mighty difficult, if not outright impossible, to manipulate the fate of someone whose fate is part of a Pattern. Do you understand?"

Harry nodded slowly. He was not sure he understood everything, but he got the general idea. He also shivered slightly, for he had a very strong suspicion whose other fate was part of that particular Pattern.

"Excellent. You are a bright kid, you know. So there you have it, Death demanding that this Riddle guy is put down for good, and Fates are not budging a bit. They apparently had big plans for this Pattern, again not sure what it is that they are hoping to achieve. Either way, apart from this Thomas Riddle, there were a number of other people whose fate was part of that Pattern, and most important of that people was you."

Harry nodded again. Well, he saw it coming. It was Halloween after all.

"And that's where our Department came in."

"I see... What?"

"I say, that's where our Department came in. You see, the Fates ruled that you need a soul-mate. A person who will love you truly, and will be loved by you, and this love will somehow allow you to defeat this Riddle, so that the Pattern is resolved properly and the guys in Death can finally get his soul and get out of Fates hair. That was the general idea at least."

Harry was positively dreading the direction this talk was taking. Really, a soul-mate, whatever it is, was probably the last thing on his mind at the moment. He still had the Tournament to survive.

"And we... well, we messed things up a bit."

"Messed things up... how?"

The girl was positively fidgeting now. The sight of a fidgeting angel didn't calm down Harry at all... quite the opposite. It was his fate the girl was speaking about, for Merlin's sake!

"Well, you see, we had this list of candidates. Mostly Hogwarts girls of course. I mean, at least I removed more exotic choices, like this Draco Malfoy..."

"WHAT?! You people wanted to give me Malfoy as a soul-mate?" Harry shouted, jumping to his feet in indignation.

"Calm down! Please calm down! Of course not!", the girl pleaded. "We just have some shippers with exotic tastes on stuff. Don't worry, such obvious mismatches were removed on the very first screening."

"It's easy for you to say! It's much harder to actually calm down when you people are trying to match me up with Malfoy of all people!"

"Listen, we are not trying to match you up with Malfoy! Your file does mention that you are heterosexual after all! So all potential male soulmates where removed from the list immediately, there's no need to worry about them. Please calm down, there's no Malfoy or Snape there..."

"SNAPE?!" Harry bellowed. "Next thing you tell me, Voldemort was on the list as well?!" He froze, as the girl looked positively shifty at his words. Harry fell back into his chair and covered his face with his hands. "So he was... Oh sweet Merlin, what did I do to deserve this?"

"Listen, Harry, you've done nothing wrong, and you definitely did not deserve this", the girl spoke softly, trying to prevent another outburst. "We actually removed all males, and most females that you simply would not properly connect with. We also removed all girls with too much of an age gap. The resulting list was quite short actually, only ten girls total."

Harry snorted wearily. "Short indeed. Anyway, what do you want now? Do I at least get to choose from that list?"

"Erm...", the girl was fidgeting again. "We would gladly give you this opportunity, all things considered. But you see, this is exactly where we bungled up a bit. There was supposed to be the final review, but then there was some misunderstanding, and some papers lost between offices, and we kinda submitted the list to the Fates without review."

Harry shrugged. "So what now, my soul-mate will be chosen by the Fates?"

"No, Harry, you did not understand", the girl mumbled. "We were supposed to find you the soul-mate. The Fates would then integrate her thread into the Pattern. But since we submitted the entire list... well, I'm really sorry, but now you have all ten of them as your soul-mates."


	2. Chapter 2 - Celestial Compensation

Chapter II. Celestial Compensation.

"Are you freaking nuts?!"

To say Harry was incensed was an understatement. It's really hard not to be incensed when you are suddenly pulled to Heavens from your sleep and told outright that you are going to have ten girls as your soul-mates - whatever that meant.

"What the hell am I supposed to do with ten girls?! I don't have time even for one, I don't even consider anyone for my girlfriend at the moment, what with all those Dementors and Basilisks and Tournaments! Just how on Earth I'm supposed to have a girl, much less ten?! Are you trying to drive me mad?"

The angel of Love winced. The discussion was going as well as could be expected - in other words, not good at all. Nobody likes being berated for their mistakes, especially higher beings, and being shouted at by a mortal was a bit humiliating. All right, it was a pretty important mortal, but a mortal nonetheless.

"Please, Harry, calm down! True, we messed up big time, especially since your soul-mate's love is required for the Fate's Pattern to resolve itself, and now with ten girls this will be much harder to achieve. But please listen to me for a bit."

Harry looked at her with rage-filled eyes but somehow managed to control himself. Breathing heavily, he sat back into his chair.

"All right, I'm all ears. You have messed up with my personal life, and from what I heard you just made dealing with Voldemort ten times harder for me. I'd rather not ask what you are going to do for encore. But before you will start telling me how all this is actually for my own benefit, can I at least have a look at the list?"

"Actually, I hoped to explain how we are going to compensate you for our mistake."

"You can tell me that later. For now, I really want to know who my soul-mates are, if you do not mind". Harry's voice was quite venomous, as he still had difficulty controlling himself.

"Oh well. All right, I guess. Now, the first on the list is Hermione Granger."

Harry sputtered. "Hermione? You mean I have to fall in love with Hermione? And kiss her and... well, everything?". He blushed slightly. Ok, he did entertain certain thoughts about Hermione, but she was... well, like an older sister for him.

"Hermione Granger is apparently quite compatible with you, so there should be no problems. Now, next on the list is Katie Bell."

Harry closed his eyes in resignation. All right, at least Katie was nice and had a great figure and personality. Harry couldn't deny that he was attracted to her on some level, though to be frank, it was probably because Katie was one of the few Hogwarts girls he regularly saw outside of her robes. He even hoped one day to gather enough courage to peek on her in the locker room after a match, though so far the idea of an enraged chaser trio going after his head was a pretty good deterrent.

"Next one is Ginevra Weasley."

His eyes opened wide in shock. "GINNY?! Are you mad? She's the freaking stalker! A female version of Colin Creevey for Merlin's sake!"

"What's wrong with Ginny Weasley? She's obviously smitten with you, she is pretty and in fact looks very much like your mother."

"I so much did not need that mental image!", groaned Harry. "Can't anything be done? Can't you, I don't know, replace her with someone?"

"Unfortunately not, Mr. Potter", sighed the angel. "The list is pretty much sealed. The only way to remove someone from the list at this moment is to kill them."

Harry had an unhealthy desire to bang his head at the table. Or maybe angel's head. He really didn't care which at this moment. "All right, I got it. Please continue. Who's next - Lavender?"

"No, Lavender Brown did not get into the final list. Actually, all other girls are from other Houses."

"But I don't even know that many girls from other Houses! Heck, I don't really know any girls from other Houses! How on Earth I'm supposed to date them?"

"Don't worry, Mr. Potter, that has already been taken care of. I have said you'll be compensated, haven't I?"

He could only shake his head in defeat. "All right. Shoot. Who's next?"

"Well, the next girl in the list is a Ravenclaw, Cho Chang."

Harry perked up at this name. Cho was a really pretty girl, and he has been recently crushing on her. "Cho is one of my soul-mates?"

"Indeed she is, Mr. Potter", smiled the angel. At least she was having some success. "So do not worry, we will do everything in our ability to help you hook up with her."

He winced. A day ago, hell, even a few hours ago he would be ecstatic to know he's going to get some help with Cho. Now, however, he was facing the inevitable fact that he was somehow going to persuade Cho to deal with nine other girls. Harry did not see that going well at all.

"Next girl is also from Ravenclaw, name's Luna Lovegood."

"Who the hell is Luna Lovegood?", he said tiredly. Apparently, Heavens were now connecting him to complete strangers.

"She's a third year at the moment, and according to the Fates her fate thread is partially woven into your Pattern anyway. If I remember correctly, you were supposed to become friends somewhere in your fifth year at Hogwarts. Since she had very good compatibility with you, we decided to accelerate the events a bit." The angel shuffled the papers on her desk and smiled. "Aha, there they are. Two girls from Hufflepuff, Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott."

Harry winced. "Isn't Susan the only niece of the Director of DMLE?"

"Erm... yes, she is."

"Just great", sighed Harry. "I'm sure Director of DMLE will be sooo happy to know that I forced her only niece to become a part of my harem. Why, she'll be pretty ecstatic."

The girl deflated a bit. "Well, you understand we did not intend such a situation originally. If Susan was chosen as your only soul-mate, that would really improve your ties with DMLE and aurors, which would be a great help against Voldemort. But as I said, we are going to compensate you for troubles caused."

"Let's leave the compensations until later. There are still three girls remaining, right?"

"Yes, indeed. The remaining three girls are from Slytherin."

Of course, Harry thought. Please, please let not Parkinson or Bulstrode be one of them.

"The names are Daphne Greengrass, Astoria Greengrass and Tracey Davis."

He raised his eyebrows. Slytherin Ice Queen as his soul-mate? He didn't remember Tracey well, but from what he could pull from his memories, she had quite energetic personality. Well, at least he was lucky not to get Parkinson or Bulstrode.

"All right", he said in resigned voice. "I got the Ice Queen and her overenergetic friend. Could be worse I guess. But who is Astoria? Isn't she Daphne's younger sister? What is she, twelve?"

"She'll be thirteen in a month or so. And apparently she's quite fond of the Boy-Who-Lived."

"Another groupie then. At least Ginny will not be lonely."

Now, Harry thought, there was only one big question. How in hell was he going to persuade all those girls to fall in love with him? He did not think of himself as some Casanova, quite the opposite in fact. His only experience dealing with the fairer sex was Hermione, and Harry was pretty sure she did not qualify as a typical female. Oh, and let's not forget the requirement that he must somehow fall in love with all of those girls as well. And all this love was somehow supposed to help him deal with Voldemort. This implied that if he did not get all this love, then Voldemort will deal with him. Great, he snorted, no pressure at all.

The girl at the desk wisely kept her silence, apparently waiting for Harry to come to some resolution. Well, it's not like he could change anything at this point, right? All of his soul-mates were a done deal. He sighed. This just meant that he would have to waddle through this somehow - just like he always did. He did fight a Basilisk after all - could ten adolescent girls be more scary than that?

He sighed. Truth be told, the thought of any one of those girls was pretty much scary for him. Ten combined... no, no, no, please give me a Basilisk any day, he thought.

Finally he opened his eyes and gave the girl a dark look. "Ok, I understand the situation. Now, how you are going to help me?"

The girl smiled. "We are going to compensate you, of course."

"Compensate me how?"

"Well, the main problem as we see it, is that while you are individually compatible with each of the girls on the list, you are not necessarily capable to maintain your relationship with all ten of them at the same time. And since Fates are breathing down our neck to fix the damage to the Pattern, we have decided to provide you with a number of useful benefits. Of course, we are somewhat limited in what we can do. To put it simple, we can do pretty much anyything which will not defy the past. So you see, we cannot suddenly turn you into an avatar of male beauty, because it would conflict with how other people remember you. However, we will be able to modify your sexual ability, so you would be able to keep up with all ten girls. This ability is purely potential of course, and you will still need proper physical training and regime to make full use of it, but it will be there. Also, we have received clearance to provide you with the soul-bonds to all of your intended, which will considerably smooth any misunderstandings and conflicts that you would otherwise have. That's the basics. There are also a number of smaller changes..."

"Stop. I got the general idea. In other words, you want to make me", he blushed, "well, physically capable, and connect my mind to them so we could understand each other better?"

"Right, that's the general idea."

Harry furrowed his brow. "Can I think this over?"

The angel beamed a smile at him. "Certainly, Mr. Potter. If you do not mind, I will go and prepare all the papers necessary for your compensation."

"Please do."

The angel leaped from the desk happily and run out of the office. Harry snuggled deeper into his chair and tried to force his brain to think. So he was going to get a harem. And he had no choice in the matter, because Voldemort's defeat was somehow dependent on his success with the girls. He made a mental note to ask the angel about this particular tidbit. If all this love was somehow supposed to defeat Voldemort, he really needed all the information he could get.

"I'm glad to see you are finally engaging your brain, Mr. Potter.", suddenly said a female voice from behind him to the left. He jumped off the chair in shock - he didn't know there was someone else in the office!

Yet in the corner of the office, to the right of the door, a middle-aged woman stood, dressed in the similar garb as the angel of Love, but with a different emblem on her sleeve. She also looked regal, like she was a Queen who has deigned to speak with a simple commoner. Which in a way was true, he thought.

"I'm sorry, madam", he said, "but I didn't know you were in the office."

"Naturally you did not", she smiled. "It would not do for little Atyllie to know I was here. But I'm afraid I have not yet introduced myself. I'm Teri, Head of the Celestial Department of Justice, or as you mortals sometimes call me, the Goddess of Justice. And I would like to offer you my help with your compensation."

Harry was dumbfounded. "Your help, madam? I'm afraid I do not understand. Atyllie - that's her name, right? - said I'm going to be compensated properly."

Teri laughed. "And you believed her? Mr. Potter, I expected better of you. You have already seen how the bureacratic Ministry is working in your world - do you honestly expect their Celestial counterparts to do anything more than cover their collective asses? You see, unless you fight tooth and nail for what's yours by right, you will inevitably get cheated. It is the sad but inescapable truth."

Harry winced. Truth be told, he could remember quite a number of incidents when he could - no, should have fought for what was his.

"So this is why I'm here", smiled the regal lady. "Because I would like to offer you my services as your Celestial Lawyer."


	3. Chapter 3 - Celestial Justice

Chapter 3. Celestial Justice.

"I, Harry James Potter, do seek Justice in the Heavens, and so I ask you to be my lawyer", Harry intoned the ceremonial phrase.

"In the name of Justice I, Teri of the Heavens, agree to be your lawyer, Harry James Potter", Teri replied in the same monotone.

Atyllie, who has just returned to her office with a heap of papers in her hands, sealed the deal with a less ceremonial, but nonetheless fitting phrase.

"Oh crap."

It took less than thirty minutes for Harry to understand that his decision to request a Celestial Lawyer was probably the best decision he has ever made in his life. As soon as Atyllie understood what had happened, she fled her office, mentioning something about need to see her boss. Teri only smiled like a cat that ate the canary.

"You see, Harry, mortals rarely receive Celestial Justice. Mostly my Department deals with conflicts between other Departments, it is a rare opportunity to work with a conflict between a Celestial Department and a mortal."

"But why me? It's not like I'm anyone important."

"Stop that line of thought this instant", Teri cut him sternly. "Your life is part of an A-class Fate's Pattern, suffice to say that makes you one of the most important mortals in the world, and perfectly entitled for Celestial Justice."

"So normal people can't hope to get it? Even if Heavens ruin their life by mistake?"

Teri sighed. "Harry, you must understand that for mortals, unless their fates are part of some Pattern, existence of Heavens changes nothing. Freedom of will creates too much unpredictability in any individual fate. Any mistakes made by Heavens, be they positive or negative, are simply lost in the background noise. Why, more often than not it's impossible to even determine if the mistake was positive or negative in the first place, much less evaluate it's scale. All too often some events, which most mortals would consider positive, become outright negatives in the slightly longer perspective. This is why the only mortals that my Department becomes involved with are those, whose fates are part of major Patterns, and only while said Patterns are active. Only when the mortal's fate is part of a Pattern, preferably a major one, it becomes possible to evaluate Celestial influence with any degree of certainty."

"And is my Pattern major enough?"

"As I said, the Pattern you are currently part of is A-class. This is as major as it gets. A-class means that should this Pattern fail, consequences for humanity as a whole will be extremely negative. I'm not speaking about extinction of humanity here, but humankind will receive a very hard blow in it's progress and development."

Needless to say, Harry was not inspired by this piece of news. "Right. No pressure."

"Oh, there's a lot of pressure on you, Harry. But please tell me - would you rather live your life without knowing the stakes? Or do you prefer to know the truth?"

"That's a loaded question", sighed Harry. "I do prefer the truth, I just... well, I would prefer this truth to be different."

"Who wouldn't?", shrugged the Goddess of Justice. "Everyone has to work with whatever he has, not with whatever he would like to have. Anyway, I still have not explained why you don't really want the compensation that the Department of Love was so eager to provide."

Harry raised his eyebrows and settled more comfortably in the chair, but he didn't say a word, looking at Teri expectantly. She walked around the desk and settled into Atyllie's chair, putting her elbows on the desk and propping her chin on the hands.

"So now that you understand the basics of Celestial Justice, you can probably see why accepting the offered settlement is a bit unwise. The only reason Department of Love offered you any settlement at all is not because they have failed you - but because they have failed the Fates. In other words, everything they have offered you is geared towards one thing only: making sure that you have the necessary resources to accomplish your role in the Pattern. They could care less about the price that you will have to pay in doing so. Whether you finish the Pattern as someone who is famous, respected, rich and loved - or someone who is broken, lonely, destitute and despised by everyone - for as long as you complete the Pattern successfully, they will be happy."

He nodded in understanding. Harry could easily expect a similar attitude from Fudge's ministry. Stands to reason bureacrats here in the Heavens are no better.

"Now let me explain their exact offer to you. The physical improvement looks fine at the surface, but do you really want to spend most of your life satisfying the physical needs your soul-mates? There's no doubt you'll be able to - but do you want physical sex to be the only thing preventing them from leaving you? Or perhaps you would wish to be something more, to be somebody whom the girls would love not only because he can give them a great shag."

The entire topic of conversation sent Harry into a heavy blush - he was not used to speaking about such subjects with women. Even if those women were goddesses.

"Then of course, there's the offer of soul-bonds. Now that's something I really hate. Full soul-bond that the Department of Love is so much fond of is like a sledgehammer. Reliable as one, and similarly subtle. Honestly, you have two people that you must bring together? Link them with a soul-bond, so now they have no choice but either accept each other completely, or tear each other's guts out." Seeing Harry's questioning gaze, she explained. "A full soul-bond is a condition where you share all your thoughts and feelings with your partner. You can feel what she feels, you can hear everything she thinks, you can even share her senses with the slightest effort - and vice versa. And of course there's absolutely no privacy to either of you. Can you imagine yourself in such a situation?"

Harry shivered at the thought. He could see himself agreeing to such a bond with a girl that he was fully in love with. That could probably cement the relationship instead of breaking it apart. But with a girl that he was still building a relationship? She would probably come to hate his guts in a day or so.

"And now imagine having ten such bonds at the same time?"

"Merlin save me", he blurted immediately. "I would go mad!"

"It's a possibility", nodded Teri, "though it's more likely that you will just have a nervous breakdown in a week or so, and then eventually get used to it. But you would be a changed person afterwards, and the girls as well."

"So if the offered settlement is useless, what can I do?"

"Why", she grinned widely, "We will determine a more suitable compensation, one that will not only help you with your role in the Pattern, but will also let you come out of it in as good a shape as possible. In fact, if everything goes well, we can establish you a better position than you would originally get."

"How is that possible? I got the impression that the Celestial Departments are not fond of doing more work than necessary."

"Normally they are. However they are in a pinch. Their attempt to settle this situation with you privately and throw everything under the rug has failed. You now got a lawyer, and can threaten them with a full-scale case. Such a case will inevitably take a lot of time - time that they do not have. Right now we are using the real time as your body is sleeping. However if our negitiations take more time than a few hours, Department of Love will have to request time compression. This means inderdepartmental requests and official channels, and this is exactly what they do not want, especially since it will cost them as well. Do you understand what this means?"

Harry smiled for the first time since his arrival, and his smile was positively evil, "This means we can blackmail them into giving more than they want - probably even more than we could get if we went through the official trial."

"Right on one, boy. Are you sure you are not a Slytherin?"

"The Hat did want to put me there. I didn't let it, though. So you could say I'm a very well camouflaged Slytherin."

He mulled over these revelations for a bit. So whatever settlement the Department of Love was offering was not for his benefit. But he did have the power to negotiate something more acceptable. What were his chances though? He was just a mortal - all right, pretty important mortal if Teri was right about his importance for Fates. Then another thought struck him. It was a daring idea, but if it worked... why, if it worked then the Department of Love would solve some of his problems and pay for this as well.

"Teri, I've got a question."

"Sure, go ahead."

"We are going to negotiate this settlement because this mistake by the Department of Love really messed my life, and I'm a pretty important due to my involvement in the A-class Pattern, right?"

"That's a pretty good summary."

"But what about the girls?"

Teri gave him an uncomprehending look. "And what about the girls?"

Harry gave her a thin smile. "As you and Atyllie have said, by becoming my soul-mates they also became part of the A-class Pattern. And their lives also became messed up due to Department of Love's mistake. What I'm saying", he closed his eyes for a moment and then plunged ahead, "Is that the girls should be invited here as well, to be able to negotiate their own compensations."


End file.
